Monday, 4 May 2009

Indietracks interview #5: Ste McCabe

May has now arrived, and hopefully you’ve all had a fantastic bank holiday weekend. We spent Sunday in the park catching up with the papers, and were pleased to see one of our Indietracks headliners Au Revoir Simone getting high praise from the NME and single of the week in the Guardian. (Actually, we saw the NME item when browsing the shelves of the local library. And by library, we actually mean Tesco Local. But, hey, it still counts!). Au Revior Simone are playing at Bush Hall on Wednesday, so keep your peepers peeled for the Indietracks flyering team!

Today, our series of interviews continues with Ste McCabe. Ste blends big punk guitars and retro-style beats/electro with a sarcastic, angry, and often hilarious view of the world. His debut album Hate Mail wowed musos and audiences around the country, full to the brim with homophobe-baiting, pro-feminist, anti-church, fun and angry pop music.

Hi Ste, tell us a little bit about yourself

I am a one-man, political queer-feminist drum machine/distorted guitar/musical terrorist from Liverpool, based in Manchester. I sing songs about racist chavs, murderous religious folk and anyone else of a narrow-minded, homophobic, sexist persuasion in the hope of making them cry, and I am proud to say that I have, hooray!

Tell us about an unusual place you've played a gig in the past

I played Homotopia gay arts festival in Liverpool last year with two drag queens, one who was dressed as a cabbage singing Shirley Basset songs and another one who's head was on fire. Needless to say I was the odd one out.

Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year?

My second album called "Murder Music" is coming out on Cherryade in September. I am sure the politically correct will accuse me of religious ignorance on this record, but I figure if Christians can claim that discriminating against gay people is a basic human right and Islamic states can legalise my throat being cut for being queer then I have the right to respond. I plan some very fetching dressing up in religious clothing with Hitler moustaches on the record sleeve, and I can't wait for the Daily Mail to review it.

And finally, who are you most looking forward to seeing at the Indietracks festival, and why?

That has got to be The Lovely Eggs. I've seen them lots of times and played with them once or twice, but they are one of the few bands I know who are truly original and so much fun live. They're lovely people too, what more could you want?

Thanks very much! And Ste’s kindly provided a free MP3 which you can download from the following link:Huyton Scum

Indietracks is an annual indiepop festival that takes place at a 1950s steam railway in Derbyshire, UK every July.

The festival has been running since 2007. Bands playing in previous years have included Camera Obscura, Edwyn Collins, Teenage Fanclub, Veronica Falls, The Wedding Present, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Pastels, Allo Darlin', White Town, The Hidden Cameras, Art Brut, Still Corners, The Vaselines, Summer Camp, Emmy The Great, The Primitives, Bis, Slow Club, Jeffrey Lewis, Helen Love, Au Revoir Simone and hundreds more artists from across the globe.